You can gain ideas from your childhood. Put things in perspective. In recent times, I’ve been reflecting on my childhood, family, vacations, memories, and much more, which inspired me to begin writing about those experiences from the perspective of a tween with Cerebral Palsy.
Hence, I created the not so ordinary series, which follows the life of 13-year-old Austin Neal Keller, an all-American Jewish boy with a passion for writing. The only difference being he was born with cerebral palsy. He uses a fiery red wheelchair to get around. Additionally, he wears wired braces on his teeth along with round Harry Potter glasses he bought from Walmart when he was a kid
Puberty and everything else made me feel out of place. On top of that, I felt even more out of place when I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. In spite of this, I didn’t discover my passion for writing until I was 15 years old.
It makes me think of this tween series. Whether you’re a writer or not, it’s something we should all do from time to time to reflect on the memorable moments in our lives.
Remember that no matter what, you are the author of your own life. You are the only one who can control how your chapters end.
Only you can control how you take. Learn from each chapter of your life and strive to be the person you can be.
My time could be rewritten. In my tween years, I probably told myself this. Your teachings have been a source of inspiration for my stories, and I thank you so much for that. Similarly, I am grateful to be able to get along with your mother, who sometimes gets frustrated with your sass due to puberty.
Through this entire series, you get to see my childhood as I created this character that came to my mind after seeing pictures from my childhood when I was growing up.
In creating the name for this character, I immediately thought of a few names, but then I remembered the song that helped me cope with Cerebral Palsy as a teenager, Austin by Blake Shelton. Neal was added because I like the way it sounds together.
I’m proud to announce that I’ve started to write the Not Your Ordinary series that tells other tweens how to get through the world that I had trouble understanding as a tween and with that I hope people will enjoy the series.
